Guardians of the New Moon: Ming and Miaow’s Great Race
Guardians of the Moon: The Year of the Rat
Eric Huang, illustrated by Phûng Nguyên Quang
Little Tiger

In the first two books in the new Guardians of the New Moon series, readers are transported to a world inhabited by characters from traditional Chinese legends or based on them.
Ming and Miaow’s Great Race begins with the Jade Emperor sitting finishing breakfast and feeling bored by the predictability of his life since creating the Earth. What he longs for is excitement and as he sits staring he notices a black and white cat chasing around near a temple. This gives him an idea: he will organise a great race between all the animals of Earth and the first twelve will each be honoured by having a lunar year named after them.
Miaow, the temple cat is at first not excited by the news of the race but cannot resist participating and sets off on a journey to where the three-part event will start. The Great Race has strict rules that must be adhered to, with rule-breakers being disqualified.
Soon Miaow encounters Ming, a temperamental nine-tailed, elemental fox who is able to shape shift into a human girl and gradually they forge a strong friendship as they struggle to stay in the three day race which takes them down into a valley, across treacherous mountainous terrain and across a mighty river with various competitors falling out at each stage, not so however the wily rat Su. Will these three number among the first twelve across the finishing line? The excitement is high, the perils plentiful and teamwork powerful.

The black and white illustrations help to bring the Chinese folklore characters to life, the story ends with Ming and Miaow becoming The Guardians of the New Moon, thus setting up the next adventure which sees the two preparing for their first assignment in their new roles.

With the race duly completed Su has been honoured by having the first lunar new year named The Year of the Rat after her. The new year is just a week away and that’s when Ming and Miaow (neither having finished the race) are given a new mission: to escort Su to her temple home and liaise with its monks to prepare for the upcoming festivities. Once they arrive, squabbles soon break out and chaos follows.
What happens enrages the sea goddess, Mazu who after thinking briefly acts against the cat and rat by means of a spell.
The celebrations now look increasingly unlikely to go ahead, so can Ming help Miaow and Su see sense and put things right ahead of the new year? It’s that or the Jade Emperor’s plan to honour the twelve animals selected by the Great Race is doomed to fail before it begins.

With action aplenty and lots of dramatic illustrations these stories are just right for readers gaining confidence in lower KS2 as well as for reading aloud around the time of the Chinese New Year (it starts January 29th this year), which is celebrated in many primary schools. I look forward to further titles in the series.